Residents of suburban Balcones Heights incorporated in 1948 to gain zoning protection only to find themselves having to rely on revenue from traffic fines to run the city. Then two interstate highways intersected at Balcones Heights, drawing a regional shopping mall yielding sales tax revenues that could suddenly fund new municipal services. Its isolated, hardscrabble days over, Balcones Heights is now perhaps the most densely populated town in Texas, and deals with a host of urban issues.